[r-t] 23-spliced TB major

Fri Apr 30 09:25:51 UTC 2010

Last night we rang what I think is arguably one of the hardest 'normal length' peals ever attempted.

The composition was Peter King's 23-spliced treble bob major, which I recently mentioned in my major "compositions of the decade" article (http://www.changeringing.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Compositions_of_the_Decade_5_-_Major)

The project to ring this has been a fairly tortuous saga that's been dragging on for 5+ years (with long gaps between attempts), with several iterations of the band.  Many well-known ringers have dropped by the wayside.  I think Peter will be writing an article for the RW fully documenting the odyssey, but in the meantime I'll briefly describe the composition.

Firstly, what makes the peal so hard?  Well, there are four main (and related) reasons I think:

1) Treble Bob major methods in general are very fluid, which makes for tricky learning.  Surprise methods, even so-called "difficult" ones, often have extended work in one place (such as "Cambridge places", a "long fishtail", etc).  The treble bob methods don't have this luxury.

2) The 23 methods in this composition are intrinsically difficult compared with commonly rung fare (the fact they have conventional symmetry, regular leadheads, no more than 2 consecutive blows, and no 7ths above the treble not withstanding). What makes a method tricky is often the number of asymmetric sections (eg 38-36.18, as opposed to -56-18). Peter's 23 methods have a very high proportion of such asymmetric sections, which leads to many quite "wacky" bits of work (motifs)

3) Moreover, the TB structure constrains the notation a bit. So while there are plenty of wacky motifs, you also get lots of repeated and very-similar-but-a-bit-different structures cropping up in many of methods. However, the methods are still very distinct, and not at all "trivial variants". Indeed, there are no repeated overworks or underworks, and all 12 leadhead groups are present (with two methods of each, except c-group)

4) Because rung TB is quite rare, 21 of the methods in the composition were previously unrung. Moreover, there are no "familiar", very structured or easy methods to build on in the composition. 2nds place Blue Nile and the "Repulsive" overwork are as good as it gets. The whole band essentially starts from a baseline of zero prior method knowledge.

The net effect is the need to learn a collection of 23 hard methods, a task made harder as it becomes increasingly difficult to "index" in the mind how the different motifs join up in the different methods. Very many hours were put in by the whole band.

By way of comparison, a peal that might often be regarded as hard, such as Chandlers 23-spliced, is an absolute walk in the park compared with the 23-treble bob.  Even for a relatively unfamiliar peal of 23 surprise (eg http://www.campanophile.com/view.aspx?59433) I'd be fairly confident learning all the methods in a couple of hours of solid focus.  The 23 TB, however, demands a much more prolonged exposure.

The composition is as below. The framework is a simple plain bob leadhead 7-part, with three homes in each part padded out with five befores affecting the tenor of the previous part.

   12345678 Awful
 - 12357486 Bizarre
   14562837 Crazy
   13728564 Diabolical
 - 17864352 Evil
   14582736 Fiendish
   13627584 Gruesome
   15243867 Horrible
   12356478 Impossible
 - 17845623 Jagged
   15283764 Killer
 - 17852436 Loathsome
   16435278 Monstrous
   18273564 Blue Nile
 - 17823564 Nasty
   13684752 Obnoxious
   15247683 Painful
   16435827 Quirky
   14562378 Repulsive
   18376245 Easton Neston
 - 17836245 Silly
 - 15237486 Terrible
   13542678 Unpleasant
 - 13527486

The methods themselves are as below, along with the falseness groups and number of <4-runs> in the plain course.

a &36-34.1.56-56.1-2-1.56-6.3,2

BDEZa

15

Awful

e &36-34.1-5-1-2-1.36-2.3,2

BEace

19

Bizarre

c &3-36.1.56.2-1-4-1.36-4.7,2

BDNcd

24

Crazy

b &56.34.56.1-2.56.1-2.34.1-36-1,2

BDEKP

24

Diabolical

h &36-36.1-2.56.1-2.34.1.36.4-3,1

BDENOa

22

Evil

j &34-36.1.56-56.1-4-1.36.2.36.7,1

DFae

17

Fiendish

l &34-34.1-2.56.1-2.34.1.36.2.34.5,1

BDEKP

37

Gruesome

g &56-36.1-2.56.1-34-1.56.34.6.3,1

BCFYaf

17

Horrible

d &5.34-1-5-1-4-1.36-2.3,2

DNac

16

Impossible

b &5-34.1.56.2.56.1.34.2-1.56-4.3,2

DFGOc

13

Jagged

f &3.56-1.56-56.1.34.2-1.36-6.5,2

DEXacd

17

Killer

d &3-34.1-2-1-2.34.1.34-6.3,2

BDEU

17

Loathsome

k &36.5.36.1-2-1-2.34.1-34.6.7,1

BDFNOa

18

Monstrous

m &34-36.1.56.2-1-2.34.1.36.2.56.1,1

BDFKaf

26

Blue Nile

h &36-56.1.56.2-1.34.2-1.34-6.5,1

BDEGK

16

Nasty

j &36-36.1.56-56.1-34-1-34.6.5,1

BEKa

21

Obnoxious

l &-5.36.1-2-1.34-34.1.56-6.3,1

BDNace

30

Painful

g &34-36.1-56-1.34.2-1-34.6.5,1

DFPX

22

Quirky

k &56-56.1-2-1-2.34.1.56-6.3,1

BDIPa

28

Repulsive

m &56-36.1-2-1-34-1.36-2.3,1

BDFae

14

Easton Neston

e &34.5.36.1.56.2-1-2.34.1.36-36.1,2

BDEFK

21

Silly

f &34.5-1-2.56.1.34.2-1.36-6.7,2

BDEGKOac

21

Terrible

a &3-34.1-2.56.1-2-1.36-2.5,2

BDGN

23

Unpleasant

I wouldn't expect any of these to explode in popularity, and the falseness won't help here. However, despite my comments in the "compositions of the decade" article I have grown to quite like some of them. The ever-changing mix of snatches of neat structure (such as round the halflead in Fiendish), semi-structured yet semi-wild place-bells (such as 3rds place bell Nasty), and complete randomness contributes to a finely-crafted whole. Take a look.

The music is the composition is nothing to write home about, but there are some neat phrases and section, and unexpected joys popping out of the ether, such as backrounds.

So what does the composition build on?  Well Smith's and Chandler's 23-spliced compositions were both landmarks in their day, but both of which are full of familiar methods, and repeated over- and underwork. Moreover, neither of these compositions contains all 12 leadhead groups.

John Leary put together a harder 23-spliced, which had every lead different, all methods wrong place, all over- and underworks different, and all 12 lead head groups represented. However, the composition still contains many familiar methods / over- and under- works:

5152 Spliced Surprise Major
John R Leary 1985 p1085
  12345678  Lyme
- 13578264  Devon
  15836742  Buckfastleigh
- 12743586  Gemini
  13876254  Londonthorpe
  16584327  Thurston
  14257638  Eire
- 18654327  Mytholmroyd
  14267835  Scorpio
- 17358264  Hardham
  18634725  Flint
  15723486  Deva
  14265873  Saddleworth
  16482357  Belfast
  13876542  Quantock
  12547638  Glasgow
- 16482573  Otley
- 15864327  Orwell
  18452673  Whalley
  12743865  Delrow
  16538742  Aquarius
  13675284  Chertsey
- 12743658  Dunwich
- 16482735

Perhaps the closest previous analogue to the 23 TB composition is Philip Saddleton's peals of 23-spliced Cambridge Colleges and "triples" surprise major (which remains unrung):

The Colleges peal is described by Philip on his website: "...I decided that it would be possible to produce something more challenging than Chandler's, which contains several back-works that are common to more than one method. I set out to find a set of methods that were designed to be as different as possible. The criteria I chose were: No two methods to have the same first section (ie different place-notations for the first three rows), No two methods to have the same fourth section, No fourth section to be the reverse of any first section"

Whilst this peal was a great achievement to ring, it lacks the feature of all leadhead groups being present. Indeed, 7 of the 12 are missing (the composition has 6 a-group, 4 d-group, 6 f-group, 1 j-group and 6 m-group methods)

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/saddleton/comps/ss8.htm#colleges

5152 Spliced Surprise Major (23m)
 2345678 Girton College
-6423857 Fitzwilliam College
-5782364 New Hall
-8572364 Churchill College
-7852364 Magdalene College
 4365278 Jesus College
-2643857 Sidney Sussex College
-2635478 Christ's College
-4326857 Emmanuel College
-2436857 Downing College
-5783624 Homerton College
-2468357 Pembroke College
-6248357 Peterhouse
-4628357 Corpus Christi College
-4685273 St Catharine's College
-2846357 Queens' College
-4286357 Newnham College
-8426357 Selwyn College
-3284765 King's College
-3246857 Clare College
-3265478 Trinity Hall
 6342857 Gonville and Caius College
-6325478 St John's College
-4263857
 7-part

---------------------------------------------
5152 Spliced Surprise Major (23m)

2345678 36.5.34.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.56.2.34.1 D (Adnams)
-7864523 5.36.5.4.5.2.5.36.2.34.2.3.56.4.56.1 F (Bateman)
 6758342 34.56.3.4.56.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.4.36.4.3 E (Brain)
 3526478 34.56.3.4.56.2.5.36.2.34.2.5.34.2.34.5 F (Brakspear)
 2345867 56.3.56.4.56.2.5.6.34.2.34.5.34.2.36.7 F (Bruce)
 4283756 56.34.56.4.56.2.5.6.34.2.34.5.2.56.2.5 F (Fuller)
-7842635 36.5.34.6.5.2.5.36.2.34.2.5.36.4.56.1 C (Gibbs)
 3526847 Hartley
 6457382 Jennings
 8273456 5.34.56.4.56.2.5.6.34.2.34.5.36.4.36.5 A (Lorimer)
 2385764 36.5.36.4.56.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.56.34.2.5 B (Marston)
 5634278 5.36.5.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.4.36.2.5 C (Mitchell)
-4782635 34.56.34.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.5.2.34.2.3 F (Morrell)
 8467523 Paine
 7243856 Rayment
-8472635 3.56.34.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.5.6.34.2.5 F (Ridley)
-6784523 3.56.3.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.5.36.2.34.5 B (Ruddle)
 4273658 Samuel Smith
 3528467 36.5.36.4.5.2.5.36.2.34.2.3.6.34.56.1 D (Shipstone)
 7462835 56.3.56.4.5.2.5.6.34.2.34.5.2.34.6.3 E (Smiles)
 8657342 56.34.56.4.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.2.56.4.5 F (Theakston)
 5836274 56.3.56.4.56.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.56.34.6.5 E (Thwaites)
 2345786 34.56.34.6.5.2.56.3.2.34.2.3.56.34.6.5 D (Young)
-8674523
7-part

The Colleges peal is a significant challenge, and deserves to be rung soon.

But, looking to the future, how can 23-spliced major be made even harder?  Well, at the extreme perhaps an atw 1-part composition of 23 methods, comprising mainly treble bob methods, with all methods being asymmetric, with irregular leadheads, and no constraints on the number of consecutive blows or any bits of notation could take things to another level.  In other words, a seemingly randomly-arranged collection of 23 completely random methods.  Any takers?

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